Gwen Lawson's bowls column: Second and third places for Northland teams at Interclub Sevens

A second placing for the women and third for the men, but no championship spots for Northland bowls reps.

The Region 1 playoff for the Interclub Sevens took place last weekend and it is congratulations to Birkenhead men and Takapuna women, who won the event and will represent our area in the New Zealand finals.

Normally all teams would have represented their centres at the national event, however, a change of plans was instigated by Bowls New Zealand because of Covid limitations on indoor numbers at an event.

Well done to the Hikurangi women, who finished in second place and to the Onerahi men, who finished third.

Hopefully next year teams will have a chance to compete in the NZ event and things will go back to normal.

Next weekend sees the centre play the Champion of Champion Triples and Fours events. Fifteen clubs (men) and eight women's teams will take part.

On Saturday April 30 it's the triples being played at Kamo and on Sunday the fours will take place at Hikurangi. Latest reporting time will be 8.15am with play starting at 8.45am.

The draw and conditions of play will be distributed to clubs tomorrow - check with your club administrator. The New Zealand finals of these events will be played in Wellington (triples) and Hastings (fours) in July.

The Coaching Association annual tournament will be played next Tuesday at Kensington. Vacancies still exist. Please contact Pat Warth 0276002582 for an entry. Kensington is the venue and you need one year 1 to 8 player in each team.

The next regional event will be played at Hikurangi greens on Saturday May 7, when Far North, Northland, North Harbour, Counties and Auckland junior 1-5 year Interclub teams will take part in the Mercedes Cup competition.

Play starts at 9am and teams will play singles, pairs and triples to find the area 1 champion club for 2022.

Entries are now being accepted for the Centre Open Singles and Centre Open Pairs that were postponed earlier in the season. Please enter on the centre website (front page) or email gwen.northbowls@slingshot.co.nz.

Next week's tournaments:

Tuesday - Coaching Association AC Fours.

Wednesday - Ngunguru AC Triples.

Saturday - Kensington Men's AC Triples.

Sunday - Dargaville AC triples.